The present application is based on Japanese patent application Nos. 2017-179445 and 2018-015502 filed on Sep. 19, 2017 and Jan. 31, 2018, respectively, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a cup holder, in particular, to a cup holder to be installed in an automobile, etc.
2. Related Art
A convenient cup holder is known which has a light source to improve visibility and decorativeness of a cup housing portion at night while a conventional cup holder is installed in, e.g., a console box or a front surface of an instrument panel inside an automobile to temporarily store beverage containers such as plastic bottle or beverage can (see, e.g., JP 2015/229455 A and US 2016/0046233 A).
The cup holders disclosed in JP 2015/229455 A and US 2016/0046233 A are provided with a cup housing portion for housing a cup, a light guide body attached to a bottom portion of the cup housing portion, and a light source emitting light to be supplied to the light guide body.
The cup holder disclosed in US 2016/0046233 A also has a channel and a drain port which are provided beneath the cup housing portion to drain liquid spilled inside the cup housing portion. By draining the liquid from the cup housing portion through the channel and the drain port, it is possible to prevent the liquid from penetrating to the light source through, e.g., a gap between the cup holder main body and the light guide body and thus possible to prevent damage on the light source caused by penetration of the liquid.
In the cup holders disclosed in US 2016/0046233 A, however, when a large amount of liquid is present inside the cup housing portion and flows into the channel, the liquid may pass beyond the channel and penetrate to the light source. In addition, there is a problem that the size of the cup holder is increased to provide the channel and the drain port.